As president of EA's Games Label, which
oversees core games, Frank Gibeau is responsible for a wide swath of the
company's output -- including internally-developed titles like the acclaimed Dead
Space and the vaunted EA Partners division, which is responsible for
publishing hits like Valve's Left 4 Dead.

It's been tough for EA in the past several
months. As the company began to regain the respect of the industry, which was worn
down from its licensed title-based reputation, the company was hit with
major layoffs and disappointing sales of its creative new IP, such as the artistically appealing Mirror's Edge.

Also aware that the company may also risk
running its proven IP into the ground, the company has profoundly changed the
way it develops its franchises -- like Need for Speed, which is seeing a
change in development studios to an external partner for this year's edition.

These moves, and more, are part of a
longer-term strategy and a meaningful turnaround for the company, which it
believes will sustain it in the long term.

Here, in an interview conducted in Los
Angeles at this month's E3
trade show, Gibeau discusses his view of the games label, its titles, studios,
and prospects.

Obviously,
there have been a lot of changes at EA over the past several months. How is the
environment right now, post layoffs? Are things starting to get back to
normal?

FG: Yeah, absolutely. I think people are
focused on winning, on creating some great IP, making some hits happen. We're very
focused on innovating on new areas like what we're doing with the iPhone and
online.

Every company in the world pretty
much went through a shakeout as the economic conditions unfolded. There were a
lot of tough conversations and a lot of things that we wished we didn't have to
do, but if you look at where we are right now, the folks that are on board at
EA and are focused on the future are really fired up. We feel really good about
our lineup at E3, what we've seen so far we've got for the next two years.

We also are really excited about that we're
going to be able to maintain the focus on creating more IPs, going online,
those are the things that people are focused on that drives a lot of positive
job satisfaction. It's innovative, it's kind of bleeding edge. So, yeah,
overall, I think we've come out of it stronger as a company, and we're very
focused.

EA DICE's Mirror's Edge

I
imagine that the mood, the overall tone of the company, was kind of depressed as it was going on.

FG: It was a tough Christmas, for sure, in
Q3 and the early part of this calendar year. Like I said, nobody
likes to do these things. It's not an enjoyable thing. And there was a point in
time where people, like a lot of people out in the world, were concerned about,
"Where's the business going, where's the industry going, what's happening
with the economy?" That angst or worry was definitely manifesting itself
in the culture.

But I think we're through that stage in the
company's history. We're focused, and I feel like people coming out of that are
now looking back. We're kind of back on product now, we're back on making hits
happen, we're back on entertaining people.

And the baggage or the
hangover from that is very short. It feels like it's kind of launched away, and
people are back on track, me included. [laughs]

There
is at least one analyst that basically was implying, not so subtlety, that EA
is not really in the clear yet as far as layoffs are concerned. He mentioned a
potential buyout -- somebody buying out EA because of the value right now.

FG: I didn't read his stuff. Typically, I
don't read the analysts much. There's a couple that I think are really smart
guys and really focused on stuff, so I very much take account of that, but I
did not read this gentleman's report.

Look, it's outside my control whether
anybody buys us or not, and the same thing goes for a lot of people inside the
company, so nobody worries about it much.

What we're worried about is
generating hit product that generate shareholder value, focusing on cost; we're
focusing on creating quality hits, we're focusing on online. That's what's
important to us and what's important to the folks inside the company.

Are there more layoffs? You know, I don't
think so. I mean, I feel like we've been very focused and very aggressive in
terms of how we cost-corrected our organizations. We're going to be looking for
how to grow the business now, not responding to downturns in the economy and a cost
base that was out of alignment with the market opportunities.